While we may spend our days fighting individual or group struggles, in a global system, our causes and campaign are very much interconnected. Join Existence is Resistance and The Campaign To Bring Mumia Home for a night of music and discussion, as we link the lives of everyday people, from Palestine to Puerto Rico to Ferguson, political prisoners to U.S. imperialism, from police brutality to war.

Singer John Legend gave a commencement speech to students graduating at the University of Pennsylvania. Legend himself is a graduate of the university. In his powerful speech he talks about love and the need for us to humanize each other around the world from Trayvon Martin to Iraqis to Palestinians to the kidnapped Nigerian school girls.

Below is an excerpt as well as the full video of his speech:

“Now, I’ve already talked about the power of love in your work and your personal lives. But I also want to talk about how love changes the world. There are 7 billion other people out there. 7 billion strangers. I want you to consider what it means to love them too. What does it mean to love people we don’t know, to see the value in every single person’s life?

Think about that. It’s a pretty radical notion. It means your daughter or son, your neighbor’s daughter or son and the daughters and sons of people who live thousands of miles away, all deserve the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

It means we let go of fear and see each other’s humanity. It means we don’t see Trayvon Martin as a walking stereotype, a weaponized human. We see him as a boy who deserves the chance to grow into a man, even if he makes boyish mistakes along the way.

It means American lives don’t count more than Iraqi lives.

It means we see a young Palestinian kid not as a future security threat or demographic challenge, but as a future father, mother and lover.

It means that the nearly 300 kidnapped girls in Nigeria aren’t just their problem. They’re “our” girls too. It’s actually quite a challenge to love humankind in this way.”

During a performance in Los Angeles Mos Def aka Yasiin Bey and Talib Kweli who make up Black Star change the lyrics to their classic song RE: DEFinition with “Let’s Get Free Just Like The Palestinians.”

Hugo Chavez visited The South Bronx in 2005..the place he arrived to was The Point… from this visit he decided to show Solidarity and brought low cost heating oil to The BX so that poor people could have heat in the winter.

Then the PetroBronx program was started in that the Venezuelan people amidst The Bolivarian Revolution again showed love as a social justice initiative began in that millions of dollars in funding thru VZ owned Citgo and The NorthStar Foundation was given to local organizations. RDACBX was one of those organizations as they directly funded the creation of The Nuestra America Media Center, in which for the last 3 years media workshops were held along with Summer Youth Employment and film screenings. Many other organizations were also supported and funded.

We are infinitely appreciative for this love shown to us by The Bolivarian Revolution. We mourn the death of Hugo Chavez and promise to all Work Like Chavez and step it up here in The Bronx.